after having been accustomed to horse-flesh, felt no
disrelish for this new dish. The Chopunnish have great numbers of dogs,
which they employ for domestic purposes, but never eat; and our using
the flesh of that animal soon brought us into ridicule as dog-eaters."

When Fremont and his men crossed the continent to California, in 1842,
they ate the flesh of that species of marmot which we know as the
prairie-dog. Long afterwards, when Fremont was a candidate for the
office of President of the United States, this fact was recalled to the
minds of men, and the famous explorer was denounced as "a dog-eater."

The journal of the explorers gives this interesting account of the
Indians among whom they now found themselves:--

"The Chopunnish or Pierced-nose nation, who reside on the Kooskooskee
and Lewis' (Snake) rivers, are in person stout, portly, well-looking
men; the women are small, with good features and generally handsome,
though the complexion of both sexes is darker than that of the
Tushepaws. In dress they resemble that nation, being fond of displaying
their ornaments. The buffalo or elk-skin robe decorated with beads;
sea-shells, chiefly mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar
and hung in the hair, which falls in front in two cues; feathers, paints
of different kinds, principally white, green, and light blue, all of
which they find in their own country; these are the chief ornaments
they use. In the winter they wear a short skirt of dressed skins, long
painted leggings and moccasins, and a plait of twisted grass round the
neck. The dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long shirt
of argalia (argali) or ibex (bighorn) skin, reaching down to the ankles,
without a girdle; to this are tied little pieces of brass, shells, and
other small articles; but the head is not at all ornamented.

"The Chopunnish have very few amusements, for their life is painful
and laborious; all their exertions are necessary to earn even their
precarious subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily
occupied in fishing for salmon and collecting their winter store of
roots. In winter they hunt the deer on snow-shoes over the plains, and
toward spring cross the mountains to the Missouri for the purpose of
rafficking for buffalo-robe. The inconveniences of their comfortless
life are increased by frequent encounters with their enemies from the
west, who drive them over the mountains with the loss of their horse